Donald Samuel Ornstein (born July 30, 1934,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

) is an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

working in the area of

ergodic theory Ergodic theory (Greek: ' "work", ' "way") is a branch of mathematics that studies statistical properties of deterministic dynamical systems; it is the study of ergodicity. In this context, statistical properties means properties which are expres ...

. He received a Ph.D. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in 1957 under the guidance of

Irving Kaplansky Irving Kaplansky (March 22, 1917 – June 25, 2006) was a mathematician, college professor, author, and amateur musician.O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Irving Kaplansky", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andr ...

. During his career at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

he supervised the Ph. D. thesis of twenty three students, including David H. Bailey, Bob Burton,

Doug Lind Doug Lind is an American mathematician specializing in ergodic theory and dynamical systems. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Washington. Lind was named as one of the inaugural fellows of the American Mathematical Society in 2013 ...

Ami Radunskaya Ami Elizabeth Radunskaya is an American mathematician and musician. She is a professor of mathematics at Pomona College, where she specializes in dynamical systems and the applications of mathematics to medicine, such as the use of cellular aut ...

, Dan Rudolph, and Jeff Steif. He is most famous for his work on the isomorphism of Bernoulli shifts for which he won the 1974

Bôcher Prize Bocher is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Christiane Bøcher (1798–1874), Norwegian stage actress who was engaged at the Christiania Offentlige Theater * Édouard Bocher (1811–1900), French politician who was one of the fou ...

. He has been a member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

since 1981. In 2012 he became a fellow of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

.List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
retrieved 2013-03-20.

References and notes

20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 20th-century American Jews Living people 1934 births 21st-century American Jews {{US-mathematician-stub